I’ve been trying to lose weight for a while (really, since the Freshman 15 hit me like a freight train), but I’m not the kind of person who gets motivated to exercise. Something about sitting on sweaty benches and pushing steel over my head never seemed appealing, and besides, I like the t-shirts I own and don’t really aspire to have my biceps outgrow them. Still, I’ve begun an earnest attempt to shed a few pounds. Aside from eating healthier (and eating less), I’ve started walking more. Not to work (30 minute carpool from home), or to the grocery store (we tend to do one huge shopping a month), but rather good old-fashioned strolls around town. At the moment, I live on the outskirts of what would be considered “in town”, so it’s all sidewalks of 25 mph streets; however, I’m moving in August, to a place along a divided highway, so we’ll see what happens once I have to drive in order to even get to walkable streets.
Health and sensory benefits aside, the reason I love taking walks is that they allow me the opportunity to listen (and I mean really listen) to music. No distractions, just pure aural enjoyment flowing through my (hopefully soon to be upgraded) iPod earbuds. While I will sometimes revisit old favorites, most of this time is dedicated to discovering new (to me) albums. Said albums may have been highly recommended by friends, may be an attempt to expand my musical horizons, or they may simply have had cool cover art that led me to check them out. Whatever the case, I will post what I listen to here in a segment I call “While I Was Walking”. Flashy name, eh? As soon as I think of something better, I’ll rename it. I promise. Maybe.
So here goes. Episode one.
Today I listened to Béla Fleck’s album Throw Down Your Heart (Tales from the Acoustic Planet Vol. 3: The Africa Sessions). For those unfamiliar with Fleck, he is a world-renowned musician known for weaving the banjo into a number of musical genres. On this album, which is more of a soundtrack to the documentary of the same name, he traveled through Africa and played with a host of local musicians while searching for the roots of the instrument he has mastered.
He performed here last year alongside some of the African musicians on this record, and after hearing this album I regret not attending. There’s some gorgeous instrumentation on this record, and it’s made me more interested in branching out into the various realms of world music.
http://www.throwdownyourheart.com/
